Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder reflect on their viral sunglasses moment on red carpet

Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder have reacted to their sweet interaction at the 2024 Venice Film Festival going viral.

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-stars inadvertently sparked an online discussion about fame and personal boundaries when they attended the international film festival in Venice, Italy, to promote the Tim Burton film. During a photocall, Ryder and Ortega posed with co-star Catherine O’Hara as photographers were heard shouting at the actors to take off their sunglasses.

The Stranger Things star, who was wearing a pair of thick black frames, then turned to Ortega as she noticeably hesitated to remove her sunglasses. It was then that the 21-year-old Wednesday actor assured Ryder that she didn’t need to comply with the photographers’ demands.

“No, you don’t have to,” Ortega appeared to tell Ryder, who decided to keep her sunglasses on.

A clip of their sweet exchange went viral on X, formerly Twitter, as many fans pointed out the differences between Gen Z celebrities and older Hollywood stars when it comes to setting boundaries.

“It’s kind of crazy to me that Jenna Ortega is able to have that confidence at her young age and is telling Ryder when Ryder has been in the spotlight since before Ortega was born,” one X user responded to the video. “But it’s also generational – Gen X’ers didn’t grow up learning boundaries and limits like Gen Z.”

“There’s something very comforting about the younger generation encouraging the older generation (who were raised to please and say yes) to maintain their boundaries no matter what,” another fan pointed out.

A third person wrote: “I like this aspect of Gen Z women. They don’t just do what they’re told just because someone else wants them to. Seeing Jenna and Winona bond has been sweet.”

Now, the actors have finally reacted to their wholesome interaction going viral in an interview with Hits Radio UK released on September 4. At one point, the interviewer told Ortega “it was so powerful” when she assured Ryder that she didn’t need to take off her sunglasses for photographers at the Venice Film Festival.

While it seemed that the Scream alum had no clue that the pair went viral, Ryder exclaimed that she had “heard” about their exchange doing numbers online. “Apparently we were viral,” the Heathers actor excitedly said. “I think it’s, like, my first viral moment!”

Ryder went on to explain the background behind the clip, noting that the photographers were “screaming” at her to take her sunglasses off. “I was like, ‘Uhhh,’ and Jenna’s like, ‘No, you don’t have to do that. And it was amazing,” she recalled.

O’Hara, who sat beside Ortega and Ryder during the interview, then chimed in: “That’s lovely. And sounds so simple, doesn’t it?”

However, Ortega downplayed the viral moment as she maintained that respecting personal boundaries shouldn’t deserve recognition. “That’s nothing to praise or applaud. You don’t have to take your glasses off. It was hot, they looked cool,” she said.

The Schitt’s Creek actor admitted that she “succumbed” to the pressure from photographers to take her sunglasses off, but ultimately decided to put them back on during the photocall. Turning to O’Hara, Ryder acknowledged how the simple gesture was one of the main differences between their generation of celebrities compared to Ortega’s generation, saying: “We do come from, like, a generation where [you’re like], ‘Ugh, okay…”

Still, Ortega wasn’t convinced that personal boundaries were entirely a generational difference, as she told her co-stars: “But I also think it’s much easier to do it for other people. I feel like if I wore glasses and they told me, I think you would have done it like that. Because it is awkward!”

Of course, Ryder jokingly added that she would’ve “lunged” at photographers if they yelled at Ortega to do the same.

In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – the long-awaited sequel to director Burton’s 1988 film, Beetlejuice – Ryder reprises her role as formerly rebellious teen Lydia Deetz, although this time she has a daughter of her own. Lydia also reunites with her stepmother Delia, played by O’Hara, while Ortega stars as Ryder’s teen daughter Astrid.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice hits theaters in the US on September 6. Read The Independent’s two-star review here.